[R-390] The radio machine, getting bit by the bug
jbrannig
jbrannig at verizon.net
Fri Apr 15 18:39:01 EDT 2016
In 1960 or so I received a Halli S-77 receiver and spent many, many hours SWL'ing...A novice license followed in 1963.
For many years I received a nice Christmas card from Radio Moscow.
While I never received Mao's "little red book", a friend did, and there was some issue about it.As I recall, the Post Office notified him of " material from Red China" and did he really want delivery.
I miss SWLing, but cranking the R-390A around the bands was a chore......
Jim
PS I still have the S-77
Sent from my Galaxy Tab® A-------- Original message --------From: dana cobb <danak1rq at gmail.com> Date: 04/15/2016 6:03 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Adam Vaughn <adamant316 at verizon.net>, r-390 at mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [R-390] The radio machine, getting bit by the bug
For me, I had a neighbor who was a ham, Phil, W1CRP, back in the late 50's
who had his ham shack set up in his garage in Portland, Maine. My friend,
Lanny, W1OO (SK) and I heard some CW coming out of the open garage door and
went to investigate. He showed us the AM short wave bands while we were
there. By the end of the visit, Phil had two teenagers interested in SWL'ing
and ham radio , hook, line and sinker!! Lanny's parents owned a floor model
Zenith radio and mine owned a table model 660 Philco Radio. I still have it.
Neither radio worked, but Phil offered to fix them for us. He was the chief
engineer at Channel 6 TV in Portland at the time. Phil found the skeleton of
a mouse in the under chassis wiring in mine. He got them both humming and
aligned them. Lanny and I send QSL reports to Shortwave stations around the
world, HCJB, Berne, Radio Moscow, Radio Peking, etc. We each had about 50
DXCC short wave radio qsl cards along with the stations scheduling and
information about the station and it's employees. I received a Package and
qsl from Radio Peking that included an English language copy of Chairman
Mao's "little red book". In April of 1961, Lanny and I both received our
novice amateur radio licenses He, KN1RQE and I KN1RQF. We have been licensed
for 55 years last Tuesday the 12th. Later on ,I was with an Air Force
Mobile Communications Sq. and among other things they had a mobile RTTY
stations in the back of a "six by" truck with a trailer mounted Generator. A
rack of two R 390's and a BC 610 transmitter. And that's how I was
introduced to "REAL RADIO's" !! Dana Cobb K1RQ Ellenton, Fl.
PS: I am acting as custodian to several R 390 and R 390A's.
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Vaughn
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 4:19 PM
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [R-390] The radio machine, getting bit by the bug
For me, I first heard about shortwave sometime in the late '80s/early '90s.
We had an old decrepit Silvertone wood table radio from the early '40s in
the basement, and I played around with its knobs and buttons numerous times,
though I knew never to plug it in. The half-airplane dial had at least one
shortwave band, with numerous country names listed on it. Later on, while
reading the old DAK catalogs, I came across their ads for world-band radios,
with their breathless descriptions of shortwave listening. "Hear Boris
Yeltsin as if he were standing in your own living room!"
Several years later, a relative handed me down a Hallicrafters S-118
receiver, along with a Ray-Jefferson 630/RDF direction finder set. Both had
some manner of shortwave band, but I first made use of the Ray-Jeff, since I
couldn't get any SW signals with the Halli (I didn't yet understand the
concept of an external antenna!). While playing with the Ray-Jeff's marine
band, I made my first reception of a SW signal, the good ol' CHU time
signal. I'd never heard of WWV, and I was fascinated with the idea of
someone announcing the time over the air, even if it seemed to be five hours
off from the local time (my introduction to the concept of UTC!).
Regardless, I kept playing around with the Halli. Still didn't know it
needed an antenna, but I turned those dials relentlessly, looking for
signals. Finally, after some knob-twiddling, I managed to pick up a
religious station out of Georgia. Eventually, I realized that some sort of
external antenna was needed, so I connected an "AM Loop" antenna borrowed
from the back of a stereo receiver. That improved things dramatically,
allowing me to pick up a number of signals, including one (apparently) out
of Czechoslovakia! I also discovered WBCQ, which was just getting its start
at the time. In addition, I got my very first taste of ham radio, picking up
AMers on 75m. The S-118 was very drift-y, but it was a start.
A few more years later, a family friend gave me an old tubed Zenith
TransOceanic portable from the late '50s. With an antenna taller than I was,
it picked up international signals from all over, and even ran on batteries
(built a pack for it using D-cells and 9 volt batteries). It was in rough
shape, and needed a few parts replaced (the line-bypass capacitor blew up
during my first listening session), but it worked quite well. Around this
time, I put up my very first outside shortwave antenna for the S-118, using
Radio Shack's long-wire antenna kit strung along the top of a fence.
Some time after that, I hit the jackpot. While in high school, I learned
that there were a couple of old military boatanchors in the back room of the
electronics shop. Among them were an R-390A and an R-392. I didn't know what
they were, but they looked quite interesting, and the 'digital' tuning was
unlike anything I'd ever seen on a tube radio. I inquired about them, and
was told that they weren't working, and that I couldn't even try them out.
After I graduated, I learned that the electronics shop was being moved to
another part of the building, I went back to check on their status. Sure
enough, during one of my visits, my old instructor asked me, "Hey Adam, you
want these old radios?" I couldn't haul them to my car fast enough. :D Going
from the Halli S-118 to the R-390A was like trading in a Chevette for a
Corvette, and I haven't looked back since.
-Adam
--
Adam Vaughn
Collector of old computers, video game systems, radios and other electronic
equipment...
Visit my page at http://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/index.html
On 04/15/16, Tisha Hayes<tisha.hayes at gmail.com> wrote:
I was bit by the bug when I was around ten years old. My father came back
from some hamfest with an SP-200 in a complete cabinet with a crinkle black
finish and the outrigger power supply. At nights I would sneak down to his
radio room and turn it on to listen to HCJB or Radio Australia. He figured
it out because the radio was never left on the ham bands.
A few years later that was gifted to me and he set it up on a little stand
in my closet of my bedroom. That was it.
I learned morse code by the dits and dahs of TVI, trying to find out what
was so important in those secret messages.
*Ms. Tisha Hayes*
*"*There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in
**the
town; they are wasting their time.*
* It is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd;
and it is possible for those who are **solitary to live in the crowd of
their own thoughts.*"*
**-Amma Syncletica of Alexandria**
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